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Food, Medicine, Health: Historical medicine

Florence Nightingale letters


Florence Nightingale's letters are a fascinating look into her thoughts and vision for nursing and health care. These would be excellent for any National History Day project, or for work relating to the history of health care. They are transcribed for easy reading. 

Contagious Diseases

Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics

A collection of notes, manuscripts, books and more relating to 10 epidemics and contagious disease outbreaks from the Plague of 1165 to the 1918 Yellow Fever Outbreak. 

One example for students is this 1913 book titled: The Prevention of Disease: a Popular Treatise. By Kenelm Winslow. This is a read-able and interesting book written for a popular audience on the man ways that one can prevent disease.   Students today will find these opinions interesting and can easily connect some of the dots between health today and health 100 years ago. 

Civil War Medicine

Letters, Clara Barton, Children of War, PTSD - all are covered here.